


Tell Me Why

by Hdham55



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Abuse, Abusive Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-22 23:19:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2525411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hdham55/pseuds/Hdham55
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity gets into a new relationship. Over time, Oliver started to notice changes in her. When she's asked about it, she brushes it off, and Oliver can't help her if she doesn't want it. But does she come to him to late?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You Took A Swing, I Took It Hard, And Down Here From The Ground I See Who You Are

**Author's Note:**

> Oliver is probably out of character here because, let's face it, if Felicity entered an abusive relationship he would end it.  
> Felicity may be a little out of character here too.   
> I have no idea where this came from, but I started writing it and couldn't stop. Enjoy!!

He should've known. She's been lying to him for weeks, months even. He should've known not to believe her. She was clumsy but not that clumsy. Not clumsy enough to bruise her entire body.

It started when she met the guy. Danny, his name was. He was everything Felicity wasn't and somehow that made her want him. He was rude, dark, hardly a sense of humor, he was black leather jacket and black boots. 

Every time Oliver had seen the guy, he seemed angry. Oliver didn't understand why. Danny had perfection by his side, how could he be so angry? He would make rude comments to Felicity and always yell at her when she went into a ramble. The one time, he did it in front of Oliver. 

Oliver had insisted on meeting the man so Felicity had set up a lunch at Big Belly Burger. She was nervous. Her boyfriend was meeting her…Oliver, so she was extra chatty. Oliver watched in amusement as she went on and on about the history of Big Belly Burger. But she shot him a look when Danny had said,

"God Felicity shut the fuck up. We don't care. You're always doing that, going on and on about pointless shit. Maybe you should stop talking all together. You're better to look at."

Oliver didn't even think about it, he just responded with, "If I ever hear you talk to her like that again, I'll rip your fucking dick off." 

Felicity had never heard Oliver threaten someone's manhood before so she really didn't know what to do or say. Danny looked at Oliver, who was two seconds away from going full out Arrow on him, carefully. 

"I'll talk to her how I want too."

"So be it. But if I hear it again or she tells me you did, I'm ripping your fucking dick off." 

Still shocked, Felicity didn't know what to do. Oliver's last sentence was the second time she's heard him say the 'f' word. The first time being in his first sentence. She watched the pair, ready to step in between them in case things took a violent turn. 

"Message gotten." Danny said after what seemed like an eternity to her. 

"Good." 

"So, lunch is going good, yeah? Does this place sell wine?" 

Oliver hasn't liked the dude since then. They never got along after that either. Oliver never liked the way he treated Felicity. When he tried to talk to her about it, she brushed it off. She thought he was just what he needed. He was honest with her, he was her opposite and opposites attract right? Well Oliver doesn’t seem to think so. 

In the first month the pair started dating, Oliver had noticed some changes in her. Her hair was down more. He didn’t know why, but it bugged him that she hardly ever pulled her hair back anymore, even when it was clearly getting in her way. She was eating healthier. Not that she had a bad eating habit, but instead of bringing cookies or candy down in the foundry like she normally does, she was bringing fruits and yogurt. 

She had begun wearing pants. He hadn’t once seen her in a dress or a skirt, and like her hair, it bugged him. Not because he liked seeing her in them, which he does, but she was a skirt and dress kind of girl, not a pant wearer. But the thing that pissed him off the most was the fact that she wasn’t talking as much. She had gotten her uncontrollable rambles under control. He considered them a huge part of her personality, but the girl who was sitting in Felicity’s chair was unrecognizable to him. 

She brushed his concerns off telling him it was time for a change. So he let it go. He didn’t want to argue with her, he wanted to argue with his old Felicity, not this person. Her changed appearance wasn’t brought up again. 

 

They were having a rough night. Oliver was growing frustrated that they couldn’t catch the Shoe Bomber. The guy was breaking into people’s homes and putting bombs on their shoes. The bombs were remote activated and all went off at the same times, usually around rush hour. Many people were being murdered, and even more severely injured. While the police would rush to the different crime scenes, the Shoe Bomber would rob banks. 

All they had to do was wait for him to set off another bomb so Felicity could trace where the signal was coming from. It was taking longer than Oliver would have liked it and they missed him, he was gone before they could catch him. 

Oliver came back into the lair. Diggle warned Roy that it could get ugly but he should just keep his mouth shut. He stormed over to her computers and turned her chair around to face him. She wouldn’t look at him.

“What is going on with you? This is the second night in a row. We’ve done this before, this guy is practically copying Shrapnel. I need you to get your head into this because people are dying and getting hurt.” He yelled. 

“I’m sorry. I’ll try harder.” Her voice was soft and unlike her.

“What?” All three boys said in unison. 

“I’ll do better next time.”

Felicity,” Oliver started. 

He was going to put his hand on her shoulder, but she flinched away. Bells went off in his head because she’s never flinched away from him like that before. She was scared of him right now, and that infuriated him. She should have no reason to flinch away from him when he raises his hand. She should be used to him putting his hand on her shoulder. He turned to look at Diggle. 

“Let’s go Roy.”

“But-”

“Now.”

Oliver watched them go upstairs. He then turned back to Felicity. For the first time since he’s known her, her eyes aren’t shinning. They’re dull and the lifelessness in them petrifies him. 

“What’s he doing to you? You can tell me.” 

“Nothing, we’re in a good place right now. I just had an off night. I’ll be back on my a-game tomorrow, I promise.” Only her smile didn’t reach her eyes.   
“When you need me, I’ll be here.” 

They ended up catching the guy the next night and Felicity had left before her boys could return. 

 

After two months of them dating, Oliver was growing impatient. She had not ditched her glasses in favor for her contacts. She was also wearing more cover up than normally, which normal people wouldn’t notice but Oliver did. He watched as her sleeveless shirts turned into short, then three-quarter to eventually long. Her sentences were short and she was always tired. 

Every time he tried to mention it, she would brush it off. There’s only so much he can do if she refuses help. But when she finally came to him, he thought it was all too late.   
He was in the foundry, like always, alone. Diggle and Roy had called it a night and Felicity hadn’t even come in. Until now that is. He was laying in the bed she had gotten him when he heard the door open and her footsteps descending the stairs. He rolled over and looked at her. 

“Felicity.” He jumped up and took rushed steps to her. “Why didn’t you come to me sooner?” He asked as broken as she looked.

“I was scared, which I know is stupid. You took down a super soldier army. But he said he’d kill me and you and I didn’t want to risk it. I was so scared.” She cried. 

He took her in. Her hair was pulled back again, giving him a good look at her face. Her lips, usually so full and bright, were now dull and there was a cut on her bottom lip that was still bleeding. Her left eye was almost swollen shut while her right one was black and blue. Her cheeks were even cut with purple bruises around them. On the right side of her jaw was yet another bruise. 

She was in her pajamas, which were stained with blood. Bruises covered both of her arms, her legs didn’t look much better. There were clear fingerprints around her neck that would surely bruise. Her knuckles also had bruises on them, but he knew those types of bruises. She tried fighting back. 

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Oliver-”

“He’s a pathetic excuse for a man and the world would be a better place without him. He’s not getting away with this.” 

“I’m going to the police and pressing charges.”

“That’s not enough. He needs an arrow in him.”

“No Oliver. I’m coming to you, Oliver Queen, as a friend. Not to The Arrow as a victim. I was gonna see if you can come to the police station with me.”

“Okay.” He said.

He knew she’d never forgive him if he went out to empty his quiver in this Danny guy. He threw on a shirt, slid on his shoes and went to the police department with her. They were waiting and waiting and Oliver was growing impatient. He was doing that thing with his fingers so Felicity grabbed his hand and rubbed soft circles over the back of it. She was providing him the comfort she needed right now.

“Is someone going to help us or are you all just gonna sit there all night!?” Oliver roared from his seat. 

Felicity heard that voice many times and she knew Oliver was at the last straw of holding it together. The door to Captain Lance’s office opened to reveal the man himself. He looked at Oliver, then at Felicity. Oliver watched as his face turned angry.

“Get in here.” He said.


	2. I Take A Step Back, Let You Go, I Told You I'm Not Bulletproof, Now You Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bad things happen but so do good things. Enjoy :)

After they were settled, Felicity started to explain what happened. It was then that Oliver remembered he forgot to ask what happened tonight. He learned that most of her bruises were from tonight. The more she said, the harder it was for him to not go suit up and track Danny down.

“When was the first time he hit you?” Lance asked, and Oliver wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear this. 

“Two weeks after we started dating. I got home late and I didn’t even know he was waiting for me. He was yelling and then he slapped me and then he apologized. I should’ve walked away then, but I didn’t.”

“And what happened tonight? What changed?”

“Well, I got home late again tonight, rough day at work, and he was sitting on the couch with the lights off. Well, we started fighting, he accused me of cheating on him and I denied it. Then he brought up Ray, my boss, and he told me that Ray said I left everyday around five so he demanded to know where I was going for the next six hours and I told him I was helping a friend. So then he just started beating me and beating me and I didn’t think he’d stop. I thought I was going to die tonight. We somehow made it to my room. I keep a bat in my closet so I grabbed it and hit him with it then he grabbed it from me so I kicked him in the groin area and then punched him in the nose and ran. I grabbed my keys and left.”

“Okay. Well, we’re gonna get you a restraining order. The court will all be set up through me. We will get him Felicity.”

Two days passed and there was still no sign of Danny. Felicity had thought that maybe he’d skip town. She had Diggle change the locks on her doors and Oliver replaced all of her windows with ones that would surely lock, and were merely indestructible. 

She said goodnight to her boys and left the foundry for the night. She pulled up to her small town home and got out of the car. Walking up to her front door, she got her keys ready to unlock the door. She put the key in and turned it. She then felt a blade against her throat. 

“Go in the house and you won’t be killed.” Danny said from behind her.

“Danny, don’t do this. I’ll drop the charges and you can go a free man.”

“I don’t like when my girl betrays me.”

“I was never your girl.”

“Open the door!” he yelled and applied more pressure to the blade against her throat.

Frightened, she opened the door. She stepped inside. She turned around to face him and earned a backslap to the face. She fell to the ground because of the force, her glasses flew too.

“Danny stop! You don’t have to do this.”

“You went to the police you bitch! Of course I have to do this. If I’m going to jail, I want to at least make sure you’re dead first.” He screamed. 

She found the bat again and hit him to knock him down and ran back to the living room. Feeling like she didn’t have enough time, she dialed 1 and waited. He picked up after the first ring.

“Please hurry, I need help, someone’s trying to kill me.” She frantically yelled over the phone, she didn’t hang up the phone, knowing they could trace it and send help right away.

She heard his footsteps storming down the steps and she made a dash to her kitchen. She grabbed the first knife she touched and waited behind the wall. Everything was a blur after that. She remembers seeing a gun, she remembers her front door being kicked down, hearing a gun, she remembers his sick laugh, and then she sees blood. A lot of blood. There’s a pool in her kitchen, and she is covered in it. Danny lies motionless on the ground below her, a knife sticking out of his chest.

 

Then her house was swarmed with police and medics. She wasn’t focusing on them though, she was focuses on what was in front of her. The body of the man she had killed. The body of the man who probably had a mother and a father that cared for him, a family somewhere else, a life that was no longer allowed to live because of her. 

“Felicity. It’s okay, come outside with me.” Detective Lance said reaching for her. 

Back in the foundry, Oliver had been working out on the salmon ladder when he got the call. He had the police radio on and was listening just in case he felt they needed a hand. Suddenly, he heard an operator calling for immediate response to a house. He wasn’t too worried about it until he heard the address. That was Felicity’s place. 

He jumped down and barley remembered to grab a shirt on his way out. He ran to his bike and sped to the scene. It was blocked off by the time he got there, and a crowd had gathered around to see what the commotion was. There was an ambulance there and he could clearly see the stretcher was missing. 

A few moments later, he saw the stretcher. What was on it made his stomach turn. He saw red, and was suddenly breaking through the caution tape and had a bunch of police officers after him. 

“FELICITY!” He screamed. “Get off of me!” He said in his Arrow voice. “FELICITY!” he tried fighting them off. 

 

Detective Lance took off his jacket and wrapped her in it when he saw she was shaking. He hadn’t known that it wasn’t from the cold. She was glued to the spot, watching as they zippered Danny up in the black body bag. She wouldn’t let Detective Lance touch her. Her mind had a million and three thoughts. Most of them starting with ‘What had I done?’

“FELICITY! Get off of me! FELICITY!” was the voice that pulled her out of her thoughts.

Suddenly, he was the only person she wanted to see. Her mind snapped back into place. The medics just took Danny out in a body bag, and if Oliver was here, he knew about it. He thinks it’s her on that stretcher, in that black bag. 

She found her strength and her feet started to move. Then they started to run. She exited her house and paused. He was fighting off five police officers, and clearly winning. How could he be so reckless?

“Oliver!” She screamed and his eyes snapped to hers. 

She saw him let out a breath of relief, then watched as one of the cops tackled him to the ground. He didn’t care though. She was safe. She was breathing. Her blue eyes were looking at him right now. 

“Detective, I need him.” Felicity whispered to Lance, as she stood helplessly, watching the police arrest Oliver. 

“Let him go.” Quintin’s voice boomed over the commotion. 

As soon as they took the cuffs off of him, he ran towards Felicity and pulled her to him. He didn't let her go. 

Later, after all the questions and all the commotion died down, Oliver convinced Felicity to check into a hotel with him. The guy owed him a favor, so they didn’t have to pay. He took her upstairs and straight to the bathroom. He told her to clean up and that he’d be in the next room if she needed anything. He was afraid to let her leave his sight. She was never leaving it again.

She came out a little while later in the pajamas Oliver threw in the bag for her because she refused to go back in her house. He has Diggle, Roy, and Laurel there now cleaning it all up for her, but he knows she’ll never be happy there. 

“I killed him.” She said, her eyes somewhere else. 

“You saved your own life.”

“By taking another’s.”

“I would’ve done the same thing. I wanted to do the same thing, I wanna bring him back from the dead just to empty my quiver in his chest. He threatened the most important thing in my life and that’s not okay. I know this isn’t what you need to hear right now, but I’m glad you killed him. I’m glad he can’t hurt you anymore.”

“I can’t live with myself knowing that I put someone in that grave.”

“I know you can’t. That’s why I’m here, to remind you of the beautiful, smart, funny, caring, kind woman that you are.”

“And what if it becomes too much for me?”

“You’re strong enough for this. I know you are.”

“And you’ll be there?”

“Always.”

Later that night, Oliver was tossing and turning in bed. She had woken up to remove the contents in her stomach and came back to find him drenched in sweat. She knew he was having a nightmare, she was having one too. 

“Oliver, it’s okay. I’m safe. I’m okay.” She said grabbing his hand. 

He stopped moving, and opened his eyes. His grip on her hand tightened, but not in a painful way, as he looked her in the eyes, he said,

“I can’t lose you. You’re my best friend.”


End file.
